Today is the Fourth of July, where fireworks are the preferred way to celebrate. Fireworks have been used for celebration since the Seventh Century, when they were invented in China.
It has been a Grand Tradition throughout the centuries for firework displays to be accompanied by music. In our country, it is ironic that the most recognized music to accompany fireworks to is the 1812 Festival Overture, about a Russian victory over the French. To be fair, though, The Stars and Stripes Forever is often used for a finale piece.
No, this is the story of a King, a lionized composer, some immortal music, and how the Best Laid Plans, as they say, "gang aft agley".
In 1748, the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle was signed, ending the War of Austrian Succession (also known in America as King George's War). Because it's good to be the King, George II ordered a Grand Celebration. He commissioned (that is to say, he ordered) his Court Composer George Frederick Handel to write some music for a grand fireworks celebration to be held in London's Green Park, near St. James' Park, on April 27, 1749.
The noted designer Giovanni Niccolò Servando designed a special wooden pavillion for the musicians to play in.
The design for the pavilion for the Royal Fireworks of 1749
The fireworks themselves were designed by Thomas Desguliers, son of the cleric and scientist John Theophilus Desaguliers.
Handel's Fireworks Music, performed at his GRACE the Duke of RICHMOND'S at WHITEHALL and on the River Thames on Monday 15 May 1749. Performed by the direction of Charles Fredrick Esq. A hand-coloured etching.
However, the Royal Fireworks Display was not as successful as the music. Horace Walpole, the great British Politician, was there and wrote:
The rockets, and whatever was thrown up into the air, succeeded might well; but the wheels, and all that was to compose the principal part, were pitiful and ill-conducted, with no changes of coloured fires and shapes: the illumination was mean, and lighted so slowly that scarce any body had patience to wait the finishing; and then, what contributed to the awkwardness of the whole, was the right pavilion catching fire, and being burnt down in the middle of the show.
Oops. Lucky it also rained that evening. The music, however, had already been premiered. Six days earlier, on April 21, there was a huge open rehearsal at Vauxhall Gardens. Over twelve thousand people, each paying 6 shillings 2 pence, stampeded to get in, causing a three-hour traffic jam of carriages after the main route to the area south of the river was closed due to the collapse of the central arch of newly built London Bridge.
So--on to the music. It is in five movements:
1. Ouverture: Adagio, Allegro, Lentement, Allegro
2. Bourrée
3. La Paix: Largo alla siciliana
4. La Réjouissance: Allegro
5. Menuets I and II
The music itself was to be scored for wind band. Handel set very specific numbers of instruments and parts. However, it seems Handel and the King had a bit of a quarrel about instrumentation, with the King wanting only winds--if there was music he wanted "martial musick"--and Handel wanting to include the "refinement" of strings. The Duke of Montague noted:
"I think Hendel now proposes to have but 12 trumpets and 12 French horns; at first there was to have been sixteen of each, and I remember I told the King so, who, at that time, objected to their being any musick; but, when I told him the quantity and nomber of martial musick there was to be, he was better satisfied, and said he hoped there would be no fidles. Now Hendel proposes to lessen the nomber of trumpets, etc. and to have violeens. I dont at all doubt but when the King hears it he will be very much displeased. If the thing war to be in such a manner as certainly to please the King, it ought to consist of no kind of instrument but martial instruments. Any other I am sure will put him out of humour, therefore I am shure it behoves Hendel to have as many trumpets, and other martial instruments, as possible, tho he dont retrench the violins, which I think he shoud, tho I beleeve he will never be persuaded to do it. I mention this as I have very lately been told, from very good authority, that the King has, within this fortnight, expressed himself to this purpose"
At any rate, the music is scored for the following:
24 oboes, 12 bassoons (and a contrabassoon), nine natural trumpets, nine natural horns, three pairs of kettledrums, and an unspecified number of snare drums. Naturally, as a double reed player, this is why I love this piece, and why I love to hear--and see--it performed as it was originally written. Handel was specific about the numbers of instruments to each written part. In the overture there are assigned three players to each of the three trumpet parts; the 24 oboes are divided 12, 8 and 4; and the 12 bassoons are divided 8 and 4. The side drums were instructed when to play in La Réjouissance and the second Menuet, but very likely also played in the Ouverture.
After the first performance, Handel arranged the music for regular orchestra as follows: Handel wrote notices in the score: the violins to play the oboe parts, the cellos and double basses the bassoon part, and the violas either a lower wind or bass part. The instruments from the original band instrumentation play all the movements in the revised orchestral edition except the gentle Bourrée and the first Menuet, which are played by only the oboes, bassoons, and strings alone.
Here is the Music for the Royal Fireworks in as close to the original wind arrangement as I can find. Unfortunately, this is not played on period instruments, and the ensemble is smaller, but you will hear the essence of the original.
Every year, at the annual convention of the International Double Reed Society, all participants are invited to bring their horns and join in a massed ensemble where the highlight is the Royal Fireworks Music. Here's a snippet--
But I promised Fireworks, so here they are:
Be safe, and enjoy the holiday, and may good music always illuminate your personal fireworks and celebrations.